Author(s):
Costa, Diana Soares da 
; Márquez-Posadas, M. C. ; Araújo, A. R. ; Yang, Y. ; Becher, J. ; Schnabelrauch, M. ; Merino, S. ; Groth, T. ; Reis, R. L. ; Pashkuleva, I.
Date: 2013
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/27086
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Subject(s): Adipose stem cells; Cytoskeleton; Patterning; Sulfated GAGs
Description
Publicado em "Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine", vol. 7, supp. 1 (2013) Proteins and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are the main constituents of the extracellular matrix (ECM).
Until very recently, GAGs were considered as pure structural components while proteins have been
associated with crucial cell signalling processes. Nowadays, it is well accepted that these two ECM
components act in synergism and are equally critical for the development, growth, function or
survival of an organism. In this work, we have developed surfaces that display these two classes of
biomacromolecules in spatially controlled fashion. Sulfated GAGs and hyaluronic acid were
covalently bound to amino functionalised surfaces and proteins were patterned by micro-contact
printing on top of the GAGs. Among proteins, we have selected albumin as a small non-adhesive
molecule and fibronectin as a larger, adhesive protein which also has heparin-binding domains.
Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) were studied in contact with those surfaces. We found that ADSC
adhere on the glycan pattern when albumin was used as a model protein and the adhesion and
cellular morphology do not depend on the immobilised GAG. Moreover, the cells were positive for
CD44. When fibronectin was used instead, the cells were found on the protein pattern where they
form large cytoskeleton with well structured actin fibers. We did not found CD44 positive cells for
those surfaces.
